This has been blasting the internet lately, and a perfect tie-in to my social media bootcamps, going on now. Incredible video with amazing statistics that you have to digest!

By Roving Social Media Reporter: Kristen Weaver

I can’t tell you the last time I was actually awake at 6am…. but this morning I woke up bright and early to get ready for Meredith Oliver’s new seminar as part of the WOAMTEC Social Media Bootcamp! Today’s session is on LinkedIn, and I’m looking forward to learning more about this powerful business networking tool.

My drive across town was an eclectic mix of old school Janet Jackson (Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty), The Ting Tings and Iron Maiden. Fashionably arriving about 40 minutes early (in true Kristen Weaver style), grabbed a blueberry bagel (from Via Panera), a banana and some orange juice – I’m set up, logged in and ready to learn about LinkedIn!

Meredith’s boot camps are really great because she does so much hands-on training. We all were able to bring our personal laptops to plug in and follow along. Because honestly, hands-on is one of the best ways to learn and become familiar with these new tools.

Ahh, Allen has arrived and decided to harass me about my upcoming housewarming party. If you don’t know Allen, he’s Meredith’s husband (aka Partner in Crime) and super-dad to Brady and Molly Oliver (Molly is the fabulous facebooking dog and infamous, in her own right).

8:30 am – Meredith just kicked off the lesson! Everyone is so attentive! She’s opening by asking everyone what new ideas they took with them following last week’s Facebook session and how they’ve used them. Lots of great accomplishments! Everyone’s been working on their Fan pages, linking and “being wild” – ok, well some of them got the message Read more »

Every day we have important business decisions to make, from how to deal with a demanding boss, tough clients and what to pick up for lunch. Being online is no different (well, maybe not the lunch part). Everyone will tell you what to do right in social media, but what about all the mistakes that are so simple to make? Let’s discuss ways that you can lose fans – and how to avoid them.

First of all, everyone likes an expert, but no one like a know-it-all. Remember to be humble, thank the people that have supported you and give credit where it’s due. Remember that being online isn’t always about YOU. Even in industries where your main objective is to market yourself – sounding like you’re a know-it-all can really turn people off from you, and that’s certainly not your goal.

So for instance, your blog should showcase the ways that you plan to service your customers, instead of only having photos of you and all of your accomplishments. Save that for the “About Me” section, where it’s perfectly acceptable to brag about all of your uber-cool awards. There’s a definite way to reach your customers, without putting them off and making you seem like your head is too big to fit through the door. Remember to make yourself seem approachable – even online. It’s important to balance your business sense with your common sense. Read more »

On a time crunch? Let’s talk shop… quickly.

Social media can be tedious, long and sometimes overwhelming. But let’s talk about ways to fix that on days when time is money – and you’re short on both! There are 86,400 seconds in a day. If you can spare 300 of them, we’ll be in good shape.

First – using a web client that specifically targets your needs is critical. I prefer to use Mozilla Firefox because of their new improved speed features. Browsing has never been faster, bookmarking has never been simpler, and finding things in a crunch has never been better. Consider it your own “PIA” (Personal Internet Assistant). Firefox has this cool “Awesome Bar” (you may know it as the address bar) that will use your words to find things you’re looking for quickly and easily. Over time, it actually adapts to your preferences to find your favorite websites faster!

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In my seminars and workshops, I frequently talk about the dramatic plunge in consumer confidence and how that impacts their willinging to buy your goods and services. I cite a study conducted by PR firm Edelman which studied “informed publics” between the ages of 25 to 64 and explored this group’s level of trust in four institutions: business, government, media and NGOs. Results reveal the lowest across-the-board levels of trust since the survey began ten years ago. What does this mean to you? Your consumers don’t trust you!

The solution I am proposing is to use social media to reestablish trust by allowing your raving fans to do the selling for you! Who do consumers trust? Each other! We naturally trust our neighbor’s referral over any type of formal advertising. Traditionally this has been called “word-of -mouth” marketing.

Here is the GREAT news. Social media is word-of-mouth networking on steriods. And, this is no longer just my supposition. Today eMarketer.com published a study that confirms online advertising trust is on the rise worldwide. “According to the “Global Online Consumer Survey” by Nielsen, 41% of worldwide Internet users trusted online advertising.” In fact, the study reveals the number one advertising tactic trusted by consumers is “recommendations from people I know”. You should definitely check out this fantastic article by eMarketer.com.

This strategy will require risk on your part. What if the reverse happens? What if someone says something negative? Can negative comments destroy all the trust you’ve worked to build up? Yes, if you don’t have a service recovery plan in place. You need a step by step plan in place to handle any negative posts. The plan should answer the following questions:

• How fast will you respond?
• What will your message be?
• How will reassure your other online followers?

With a plan a place you can effectively handle negative posts. AND, get this….you can actually earn MORE trust by allowing an honest dialogue to take place, showing that you have a plan in place and that you take your customer’s concerns seriously. This is the mark of a trustworthy company.

But, let me quell your concerns about negative posts. I monitor a lot of “business” social media sites. I don’t see a lot of negative posts EXCEPT for the big “corporation” type companies. Why? No one wants to fire the first shot across the bow. I believe we are all thinking “If I start the negative avalanche it will eventually catch up to me!” We are afraid to say something negative about another business in fear someone else will do it to our business. Make sense? In fact, I mostly find social media pages for small businesses to be a sickening love fest of unrealistic proportions!

Start allowing your past, current and future customers to talk to each. They can sell you better than you ever will. Open up the dialogue and reap the rewards.

We practice what we preach! Please post a comment below and we invite you to disagree! And, we invite you to become a fan of the Internet Marketing Hotline on Facebook!

Need help with social media? Sign-up for Meredith’s Social Media Boot Camp, Aug. 11, 18 & 25 at the HBA of Metro Orlando.

Today I had the pleasure to speak for the Altamonte Springs Woamtec Chapter and what lovely ladies! Their energy and enthusiam was contagious. Thank you for having me!

I shared with them my ”fab five”…my five favorite FREE online tools. As a busy power mom, I use these tools on a daily basis. I believe technology should make our lives easier not harder! If a technology tool doesn’t save me time and/or money it is off the list! Enjoy my list and I hope they make your life easier as well!

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Social Media: What do you offline, you do online!

Social media is the next generation “rat race”, and in this world where thousands try to stand out, what will make you different?

What things can you offer that others won’t? Contrary to some beliefs, social media is far more than just a popularity contest (where your success is measured by the number of Twitter followers or Facebook Fans).

So here are some important ways that you can set yourself apart from every other social media cool-kid, and gain a true following.

Be an expert. People will listen if you have something important to say. By showing that you’re an expert in a specific field or on a specific topic, they will appreciate and follow your insight. This will also keep them coming back for more.

Interact. Don’t just wait for fans or followers and then let them sit there. Use these people to interact, comment, question and chit-chat. This will also give you access to their list of contacts, who will see you interacting and want to know who you are and what you can offer them. If time is a problem for you, just send some quick one or 2 word comments every once in awhile so they know you haven’t forgotten about them.

Don’t be self-centered. This is all about your status updates. Everything can be updated these days – from Twitter and Facebook, to your LinkedIn and Loopt  statuses. But if you’re only talking about you, people will get bored. It’s great to offer insight in to your day and gain a personal connection with your followers, but remember that there needs to be something in it for them. So try status updates that ask a question, or provoke a response. Like this one I saw the other day:

Is happiness a choice? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Discussion board!

Mind your manners. No one likes a Negative Nancy, so remember that making friends (and keeping friends) in social media is a lot like making (and keeping) friends in real life. If your comments and updates are always negative, or calling out other businesses or friends – you’re liable to scare people off. If you’re going the route of joining business and personal lives together – remember you have to act professionally at all times. If you’re not willing to do this, don’t combine them. It’s a fine line to cross, and sometimes we all need a little reminding.

Take a step back once in awhile. Keeping up in social media can be an exhausting job, especially if you’re doing it right. But remember to take a step back once in awhile. When you get burnt out, your quality of information can suffer. Take a couple days off, your blog readers will understand When you come back, you’ll be fresh and full of great ideas!

Have you noticed that the iPhone has an app for everything? Maybe you’ve seen the commercials…

• Need to find a restaurant? There’s an app for that.
• Need to buy a car? There’s an app for that.

I wish there was an app to go to the gym for me…

And have you also noticed that many of these app’s have a Twitter connectivity? It really makes you think about how revolutionary Twitter is, and why it’s picking up the kind of following it has.

While searching some favorite places, I found a cool new app site called TweetMic. Now, you can publish audio clips on your Twitter!

I’m fascinated. It works a little like 12 seconds, but just audio, instead of video. Not having a particularly good hair day? Stick with TweetMic.

This app has a super easy user interface and records at a high quality level, so you won’t sound like Darth Vader.

“TweetMic is a simple and intuitive Twitter client app for the iPhone that allows you to make high-quality audio recordings or “Tweetcasts” and publish them directly to Twitter. There is no limit to how much you can record and you don’t need to sign up for any additional service to start using TweetMic.”

It also won’t delete your previous recordings on the site, so it acts kind of like a live recording journal.

“With TweetMic you can publish tweets much faster, and you don’t have to break away from the moment to type anything. The energy and emotion of your voice conveys far more information to your followers than just words alone.”

Things like this actually make me want to get an iPhone!

At the rate social media sites are popping up, it’s hard to keep track of the new stuff when you’re still trying to figure out making a Facebook Fan page! So I did a little research, and came up with the top new and interesting social media places that are going to start making a big impact on the way we all work!

You don’t need to run out and sign up for every one of these, but see what you think will work the best for you, and start there. You can use this list as you become more familiar with some of these applications and continue to add them to your arsenal of business tools!

12seconds - You like video? You like Twitter? What an ingenious way to connect the speed of Twitter, with the personalization of  web video blogs. 12 Seconds is a micro-video-blogging site that limits your video to… you guessed it, 12 seconds. You can connect your 12 Seconds account to your twitter and facebook pages, so they automatically update whenever you post a video. You can even upload from your mobile phone! On a fun note – one of the cool things on 12seconds is the daily challenge Check it out! http://12seconds.tv

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Cell phones aren’t just for phone calls anymore, and with the new and improved cellular products vastly available (to anyone who’s willing to pay for them), your cell phone can do so much more than send a text message or take a picture. Many cell phones have the ability to navigate you through GPS, find a restaurant near you to eat, make appointments, take videos, listen to music, and even watch TV!

Social networking is all about time and communication – 2 things that cell phones have made so much easier. Many people are in a hurry now-a-days (who isn’t?), and cell phones have the ability to help keep you updated when you’re on the go. You can send e-mails through your phone to important clients or schedule an important meeting that you can’t forget in your phone’s calendar. You can even use the internet on your phone, whether it is looking up information or just checking your Facebook. There are many applications a phone can offer, but everything comes with a price.

So no matter who your carrier, here are a couple of great options for keeping you in the loop while you’re on the go!

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